Gary Lewis Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 I think I will need to cut the U bolts. I started to clean things up and discovered that at least 2 of the nuts have degraded to the point that there is little to no flat spots left. The nut is nearly round! Another shot from further out. Yep, it looks like you'll have to cut them. They should be torqued to almost 200 lb-ft, IIRC, and that's not something you back off with vise grips. Let me do some research on the GAWR vs springs.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 8, 2022 Share Posted October 8, 2022 Here is another photo of the door sticker. Looks like 9100 GVWR with a 4500 front GAWR and 6250 rear GAWR. The GVW type is F361. Well, this is interesting and confusing. From what I see in the rear spring charts there wasn't a GVWR of 9100 in 1980 for an F350 4x4 with a 133" wheelbase. (It is a regular cab?) But the F361 does decode to a GVWR of 9100. But when you get the springs apart you should find the ID#'s shown here: Documentation/Suspension & Steering/Rear Springs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlas75 Posted October 8, 2022 Author Share Posted October 8, 2022 Yep, it looks like you'll have to cut them. They should be torqued to almost 200 lb-ft, IIRC, and that's not something you back off with vise grips. Let me do some research on the GAWR vs springs.... I forgot I requested this photo of AmericanSavage's truck for comparison. His was made roughly a month before mine and he also has an F350 with a 9100 lb GVWR. I think I'm convinced that what I have is an aftermarket setup and even the overload brackets were changed. Now I get to figure out what to do about it because you are right Gary, the ride is rough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuzzFace2 Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 I forgot I requested this photo of AmericanSavage's truck for comparison. His was made roughly a month before mine and he also has an F350 with a 9100 lb GVWR. I think I'm convinced that what I have is an aftermarket setup and even the overload brackets were changed. Now I get to figure out what to do about it because you are right Gary, the ride is rough. On the U blot nuts I have never seen 2 stacked on each other but you normally see the nuts for U bolts are twice as tall making it look like 2 nuts. Can you see a lock washer under the nut? If so then it is a tall nut not uncommon for U bolts. As for riding ruff what will the truck be used for? If just riding around then yes pull a leaf or 3 out butif you will have any kind of weight on the bed they need to stay. OR Pull the leaves and install air bags for when you carry weight. Dave ---- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmchuck Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 Well it’s confirmed. I have tach signal at the tach so I must have smoked the tach. Well…live and learn I guess. I have another question. Neither my factory temp gauge nor the aftermarket temp gauge have worked since I bought the truck. Today I replaced the old aftermarket gauge with a new one and it doesn’t work either. Now I am starting to think something else is going on. Where should the aftermarket gauge be plumbed in? I put the new one right where the old one was, which is on the radiator side of the thermostat about 2 inches past the thermostat. Is that a proper location? If the thermostat was missing or stuck open would the engine get hot enough to register on either gauge? Bringing this part of your thread back to life, was going through you thread last night, your making great progress! I bet you can get the tachometer working again. I went through this same process on my rig recently and discovered the problem with the tach was the internal ground inside of the instrument. Was frustrating to see it work, and then quit. Under the plastic cover, the post marked as a ground has to touch the solder on the circuit board. On mine there was two push-on (hat style) hold downs that I was able to tighten down. While there I added some solder between the post and the circuit board for insurance to ensure connectivity. I believe the nuts holding the plastic cover on actually was backing the ground away when I tightened them. I didn't go very tight with the nuts on reassembly, just snugged them up. Wish I had taken photos of all this, but it should be pretty evident once you open it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlas75 Posted October 13, 2022 Author Share Posted October 13, 2022 Bringing this part of your thread back to life, was going through you thread last night, your making great progress! I bet you can get the tachometer working again. I went through this same process on my rig recently and discovered the problem with the tach was the internal ground inside of the instrument. Was frustrating to see it work, and then quit. Under the plastic cover, the post marked as a ground has to touch the solder on the circuit board. On mine there was two push-on (hat style) hold downs that I was able to tighten down. While there I added some solder between the post and the circuit board for insurance to ensure connectivity. I believe the nuts holding the plastic cover on actually was backing the ground away when I tightened them. I didn't go very tight with the nuts on reassembly, just snugged them up. Wish I had taken photos of all this, but it should be pretty evident once you open it up. Thank you for the insight. I have suspected this could be the issue but have not had time to remove the cluster and investigate. Sounds straight forward. Maybe I’ll take a look this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlas75 Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 Thank you for the insight. I have suspected this could be the issue but have not had time to remove the cluster and investigate. Sounds straight forward. Maybe I’ll take a look this weekend. Well, I was able to pull the cluster out today and take a look at the tach. I cleaned up the connections and studied the posts where they meet the circuit board. While I don’t see any cracks in the solder indicating a failure, I know they can be hard to detect. Tomorrow I will hook up the tach outside of the cluster and see if it works that way. If it does, I will reassemble the cluster and reinstall…and cross my fingers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 Well, I was able to pull the cluster out today and take a look at the tach. I cleaned up the connections and studied the posts where they meet the circuit board. While I don’t see any cracks in the solder indicating a failure, I know they can be hard to detect. Tomorrow I will hook up the tach outside of the cluster and see if it works that way. If it does, I will reassemble the cluster and reinstall…and cross my fingers! While you have it out use a Q-Tip and rubbing alcohol to clean the brown stuff off the circuit board. Several people have said that makes a difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmchuck Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 Well, I was able to pull the cluster out today and take a look at the tach. I cleaned up the connections and studied the posts where they meet the circuit board. While I don’t see any cracks in the solder indicating a failure, I know they can be hard to detect. Tomorrow I will hook up the tach outside of the cluster and see if it works that way. If it does, I will reassemble the cluster and reinstall…and cross my fingers! Pay close attention to the ground connection, if you look at this while apart, notice that the brass stud that serves as the ground connection needs to touch the solder on the instrument under the circuit board. The push on "hats?" that hold the two halves together were loose on mine as well, I used a very small socket to push them down tight. My theory is that when I put the cover back on and tightened down the nuts, it was backing the brass away and breaking the ground. I also added solder to ensure it was connected, but that was probably not necessary. Good luck with it, I bet you get it working! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atlas75 Posted October 21, 2022 Author Share Posted October 21, 2022 Pay close attention to the ground connection, if you look at this while apart, notice that the brass stud that serves as the ground connection needs to touch the solder on the instrument under the circuit board. The push on "hats?" that hold the two halves together were loose on mine as well, I used a very small socket to push them down tight. My theory is that when I put the cover back on and tightened down the nuts, it was backing the brass away and breaking the ground. I also added solder to ensure it was connected, but that was probably not necessary. Good luck with it, I bet you get it working! So far, no luck on the tach. Can’t get it to work. Is there a way to test the coil signal coming to the tach? I’m curious if it is receiving a good signal. I know it’s getting something because my test light will illuminate but I don’t know if it is a good signal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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